garyvines-01290

Earth has passed into the tail of a comet that produces some sort of strange radiation that makes most of the machines and computers on earth sentient and destructive. Vehicles move under their own power and try and kill humans. Sodo machines shoot out their contents at a deadly speed and draw bridges bring themselves up, creating chaos. A small group of people become trapped in a diner while the large trucks, one of which has a daunting goblin's head attached to the front it, encircle the diner waiting for the humans to come out.

This was the premise of this coked-up, action/horror movie that makes absolutely no sense. It's part horror, part action, part science fiction yet none of it congeals into anything that makes any sense whatsoever. Then, I approached it as a comedy and watched it again and it came off a little better to me.

The stand outs of this movie: 1. It's so bad it's good, what's supposed to scare comes off hilarious and the dialog has such a generic tone to it, that it sounds like the movie is a spoof.

2. Emilio Estevez, because he's Emilio Estevez.

3. The sound track done by the legendary AC/DC.

4. That iconic Goblin headed truck.

Don't watch this expecting it to be scary, make any sense, develop characters or be serious in any way and you can get through it.

Oh, and by the way, its directed by Stephen King who wrote it. I am a big fan of his writing, but not so much the movies that get made as that his writing works best in your own imagination and something frequently gets lost in translation what it moves into other medium.

This movie is about a newly formed family from an existing family of a Father Max (played by Tom Payne from The Walking Dead...I wished he had a bigger part as that he's an Excellent actor) and his two daughters Alice (Pyper Braun) and Tylor (Tegen Burn). Max marries Jessica, (DeWanda Wise) how is a famous children's book artist and they move to Jessica's childhood home to start their family and be closer to Jessica's institutionalized Father. Upon arrival, Alice starts to hear a disembodied voice and eventually discovers a Teddy Bear, named Chauncy who she refers to as her imaginary friend. She indicates that Chauncy tells her things, is constantly hungry and has created a list of things for her to collect for him that seems a little off.

Of course, Jessica and Taylor don't hit it off in the stereotypical teen angst and "you're not my mother" attitude that is so frequently and predictably portrayed in movies like this that I could have told you that was going to happen from the start. Alice is a little "special" and her whole character sort of throws back to "Poltergeist' in that she seems to be the target of something from the other side wanting to reel her in.

Jessica is re-introduced to her childhood baby sitter Gloria (played by the stellar Betty Buckly, who you may remember as the nice teacher that befriended Carrie in the movie.... Carrie.) She seems to have some insight into Jessica's troubled past but doesn't share the information initially.

I was initially captured, but quickly got lost in the storyline which began to unravel midway through. I didn't really have an issue with the actors, they all did a pretty good job but even they started to de-rail toward the end. It's as if this movie couldn't quite realize itself or the writers had a great idea but couldn't carry it out. The movie echoes Poltergeist, Labyrinth, Hell raiser, A nightmare on Elm Street and maybe a few others I can't quite put my finger on right now. Those all are great inspiration but also are giants in their genre, so you'd better be able to compare, which this movie didn't, not by a long shot. The story started well but fizzled.

That being said, I could see, with some minor editing this movie being a good scary movie for children around the Halloween time frame, especially or 8-12 year olds, considering that something that a lot them may actually own a teddy bear. Other than that, this is not a movie I would recommend to anyone over the age of about 16.

A movie set on Nantucket Island where a seemingly wealthy couple Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman) a writer and her doting husband Tag Winbury (Liev Schreiber) are hosting a wedding for their middle son Ben (Billy Howle) and his fiancé Amelia (Eve Hewson). She is deemed "less than" by Ben's parents as that she's not quite from the stock that their Ben is from, meaning, she's marrying up and Mom (at least) doesn't like it. Amelia's gregarious, beautiful and bubbly friend Merritt shows up and tensions rise. The older brother Thomas (Jack Reynor) and his pregnant wife Abby (the legendary Dakota Fanning!) are there also. He's a drinker and stirs up trouble while she's a silver tongued passive aggressive diva. The younger brother Will is only 17, soon to be 18 at which time he and his older brothers will inherit their trusts. A motive for murder as that someone ends up dead on what would have been the morning of the wedding.

It's a who dune it in the vein of Agatha Christy with a star studded cast. Here are the things I liked about it.

The story, it's interesting and it's told well.

The actors all did a very good job as could be expected since there are powerhouse actors in this. I loved Live Schriber, Eve Hewson, Billy Howle, Nikki Henry, Jack Reynor, Ishaan Khatter, Dakota Fanning and Isabelle Adjani.

The setting is lovely, I could watch it on mute and enjoy it.

What I didn't like about it.

The order: there was some disjointedness in the story telling but it was done to build tension so I get it, I just don't like it. I like my stories to have a beginning, middle and end that resolves nicely, this one starts kind of in the middle of a story but it's not that off putting.

Believe it or not, Nicole Kidman is miscast in this. She's starting to look a little "done" with cosmetic enhancements and the lower half of her face doesn't seem to move with her eyes. She's a little too old for the role she was cast in, a younger actress may have driven this up a little more for me. I found myself staring at her lips instead of listening to her lines. Also, she sighs like 30 times through the movie, I needed some other range of acting. I'm not that mad her overall, she still did a good job but there were some idiosyncrasies for me.

Should you watch it, yes! It's a great show, especially if you like "who done its."